{"id":17274,"date":"2025-09-02T23:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/?p=17274"},"modified":"2025-09-02T23:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:42:11","slug":"ukrainian-authorities-want-largest-christian-church-banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/?p=17274","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian authorities want largest Christian church banned"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was previously designated an entity linked to Russia, but has refused to \u201ccorrect violations\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ukrainian authorities have filed a case with the country\u2019s top administrative court to have the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) legally dissolved. Late last month, the country\u2019s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience declared Ukraine\u2019s largest Christian denomination an entity linked to Russia.<\/p>\n

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s government has taken an increasingly hard line against the UOC, seizing several of its properties and opening criminal cases against a number of its clerics.<\/p>\n

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Viktor Elenski, the head of Ukraine\u2019s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, announced that the lawsuit had been launched last Friday. He said that after the church refused to comply with the authorities\u2019 demands, \u201ca decision was made that the UOC should not be considered a part of Ukraine\u2019s religious life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He added that the church had filed several counter-lawsuits.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"RT\"
Hungarian church torched in Ukraine<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The UOC has been self-governing since the 1990s, but maintained a canonical connection to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) In May 2022, it declared independence.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, late last month the Ukrainian authorities found the UOC to be associated with a \u201cforeign religious organization whose activities are banned in Ukraine.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Metropolitan Onufry, the highest bishop of the UOC and whose Ukrainian citizenship was revoked last month by Zelensky, has refused to comply with the government\u2019s order to \u201ccorrect violations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Commenting on the latest developments, Russia\u2019s ambassador-at-large, Rodion Miroshnik, told TASS on Tuesday that the \u201cUkrainian authorities have made up a pseudo-legal mechanism for destroying the Orthodox church they hate\u2026 trampling on the religious feelings of millions upon millions of Ukrainians.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Outspoken Russian MP Vitaly Milonov told RT that the Ukrainian authorities\u2019 decision was \u201cone of the signs of the impending Apocalypse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The UN and several international human rights organizations have accused Kiev of overreach and interfering with freedom of religion due to its actions against the UOC.<\/p>\n

Speaking in May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov vowed that Moscow \u201cwill not leave the Orthodox people of Ukraine in trouble.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThese acts are being carried out with the connivance and even support of many European countries,\u201d<\/em> he stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was previously designated an entity linked to Russia, but has refused to \u201ccorrect violations\u201d Ukrainian authorities have filed a case with the country\u2019s top administrative court…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t